A design is known from DE 33 36 876 A1 in which the comb elements for a circular comb are made up of multiple toothed segments which are provided with a toothed clothing and held together by longitudinal bolts. The longitudinal bolts protrude into boreholes provided in the toothed segments. Multiple comb elements arranged one behind the other (also referred to as a bar) form a comb segment having a closed combing surface. The toothed segments of the particular comb element are provided with a dovetail-shaped recess via which they are connected to a base body of the circular comb by means of a retaining member. The retaining member is provided with a corresponding dovetail-shaped counterprofile, via which it engages with the recess in the toothed segments and is held in a corresponding recess in the base body via a screw connection.
A similar design is known from published CH 706 344 A2, in which toothed clothings are fastened to a retaining rod that is connected to a base body via dovetail-shaped fastening means. Here as well, a screw connection is provided via which the fastening means is connected to the base body. In practice, maximum torques are specified for tightening the screws, via which the retaining members, i.e., the retaining rods for fastening the comb elements to the base body, are connected or braced. The aim of specifying a maximum torque is to prevent the comb elements from warping when they are braced against the outer circumferential surface of the base body during the fastening operation. These specifications may also be met by using a torque wrench, so that no warping occurs in the comb elements, which could result in dimensional deviation and influence the distance of the tooth tips of the comb clothings from the lower nipper plate of a nipper unit. In practice, however, it has been shown that in many cases a torque wrench is not used, and these screws are tightened with a simple wrench, resulting in the above-described risk of tightening the screws with a higher torque than specified. This may result in the described deformations of the comb clothings, which may adversely affect a distance to be maintained between the lower nipper plate and the tooth tips. In the worst case, this may result in collisions between the tooth tips of the clothings and the lower nipper plate.